The marijuana business was generally good to Thomas Chong, one-half of the Cheech & Chong comedy duo, until Feb. 24. On that day the comedian, best known for portraying stoned losers in movies like Nice Dreams and Up in Smoke, was nabbed in a nationwide sweep of merchants of pot pipes, bongs and other drug paraphernalia.

Those products, along with small scales, tiny spoons and powder used in diluting cocaine, are prohibited by a little-enforced 1986 federal law. Chong, a naturalized Canadian, was one of 55 people charged as part of Pipe Dreams, a nine-month undercover investigation of paraphernalia vendors. On Sept. 11 Chong landed nine months in jail, one of only two Pipe Dreams jail terms handed out so far.

"They mistook my character for me," says Chong. During his sentencing hearing, the prosecutors, seeking a hefty sentence, noted that he was in the process of making another Cheech & Chong movie. "I just reflect society, the same way Dean Martin reflected drinkers."

Not so, says Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, who instigated Pipe Dreams. "We prosecute people for the deterrent effect," she says. "Thomas Chong was operating an illegal business, and he demonstrated a lack of respect for the law." Buchanan, who says there is "a multibillion-dollar" trade in drug paraphernalia on the Internet, offered her 92 peers around the country involvement in Pipe Dreams, but only five others took action.

Chong plans to use his jail time to work on new material. "This is career-enhancing," he says. "Still, I wish my character was going to jail, instead of me."

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